Hi all,
I'm looking for advice/feedback on developing a 20 minute workout I can do at home in the morning without equipment or tv. I used to go to the gym at every lunchtime; but now, I sometimes really need that lunchtime to run errands or whatever. I don't have any time after work as I have to get right home to my son who is either at home with a sitter or I need to pick him up at his after school program. The earliest my husband gets home is 7pm, and realistically at that time I am not going to go out to the gym (would keep me awake the rest of the night). I can probably commit to getting to the gym 2x per week at lunch (and plan to do the rowing machine on those days) and 1 or 2x on the weekend to swim.

I was thinking a combination of push ups, some pilates work and jumping jacks or marching in place or something like that. I'm pretty fit so I'm looking for something that would be strenous. Specific suggestions from all you fitness buffs would be great. 20 minutes is my time limit. Thanks!!

Yup. That's all I do. Some do tricks and things, but twirling the hoop to music is fun and effective so I've never bothered to work on any of the fancy stuff.

Adult hoops (I think they're called fitness hoops, too) are a little bigger and they're heavier. That makes them easier to spin, use more calories and work your muscles more than the light weight kids' hoops do.

We made mine from PVC tubing. If you're interested, just google hooping or hula hooping. You'll find everything from hoops for sale, to hooping forums to you tube videos.

Do you have weights, you can do circuit training routine then. Do Cardio like Jumping jacks or jump rope (without the rope) for a couple of minutes and then do weights for couple of minutes various exercise and then back to cardio and do several reptitions. That will burn a lot of calories and will be vigorous. I know some of my videos by heart so I could do them without actually watching them.

Her workout are short, but killer. I've seen a definite change in the definition of my muscles since I started doing her workouts two weeks ago. they are difficult and require a lot of heart, but most do not require equipment, and if they do, the equipment is pretty easy to fashion yourself if you don't want to buy it. she uses a lot of bodyweight exercises in fast repetition that blows through fat and calories. I would highly HIGHLY recommend them. I'm using a combo of three different exercises of hers per week, plus a combo of different cardio classes offered at my gym (kickboxing, step, cycling and pilates) plus some strength training circuits to power through these last few pounds. i've been pretty steadily losing about a pound a week, which considering the fact that it takes some people a year to lose the last 10 lbs. is something I'm sort of proud of.

and always remember, how you look is 90% what you put in your mouth and 10% how much you move.

I like your routine, I but I'd like to see more strengthening of the large muscle groups in the legs and also the arms.

You could do squats, lunges, wall sits (love these!), and calf raises for the lower body. You could do push ups for the arms, chest and shoulders. Planks are great for the core.

100 of anything would do me in. I'd be bored stiff. I'd rather vary it up and do more exercises in the same amount of time.

For cardio, you could do suicides in whatever room you have available. Let's say as you walk across your family room the first item you come to is your couch, then you coffee table, then a child's toy on the floor, then the wall. You run to the couch and touch the floor, back to the wall and touch the floor, run to the coffee table and touch the floor, run back to the wall, then run to the toy and touch the floor and back to the wall and touch the floor, etc. It's back and forth and back forth. This really gets the heart rate up and is more interesting than running in place...or 100 jumping jacks.

My issue is that I need to be able to do this workout in my living room before anyone in the house wakes up. The living room is right next to my son's room so I have to be quiet. I don't really have room to run around (living room is 12 x 18 and is also the dining room.) I need stuff I can do on the space of a yoga mat! Wall sits are a possibility as are lunges. I'll try to incorporate those.

Re low celings...my old house was barely over 6 foot ceilings ( converted cottage) and I had no problems jumping. I do it now in my basement with 6 foot ceilings and don't come close to the ceiling. You really aren't jumping all that high like you think you would. Really, 9 feet are more then enough! Helps with cellulite too!